Chapter 109 spied

Anthony and his captains can't figure out where these Chinese pirates got so many Western-style artillery. You know, there are so many pirates along the coast of China now. In order to enhance their strength, these pirates are everywhere * cannons, but because they are in Manila's cast iron The output of the factory is very small and can't meet the needs of these pirates.

In addition, considering that these Chinese pirates cannot be given too strong, whether they, the Portuguese, or even the Dutch, are quite cautious when selling artillery. First of all, they will only sell some pirate artillery that they trust. In addition, they will also control the weight of artillery.

Only the Portuguese sold 30 cannons on a British ship salvaged from the sea of Trench Mirror Australia the year before last, which was regarded as a relatively heavy artillery, and it was extremely difficult for other pirates to obtain such heavy guns.

And this group of Chinese pirates who call themselves sea wolves don't know where they got so many Western-style cannons, and there will be such heavy cannons, which has become much more difficult.

Anthony became more and more uneasy. They seriously underestimated the strength of these Chinese pirates, so can he seize the chicken cage bay next? He made a series of question marks in his heart.

The artillery battle between the two sides was still continuing at this time, and the sound of gunfire on the sea became a piece of gunpowder smoke rising from the ship or the fort, and the flames of the mouth of the gun, like lightning, kept flashing.

A large number of shells poured on the Peace Island, falling on the fort and around the fort, and the gravel flew around, and the ground was constantly shaking.

At this time, the other two forts at the mouth of Chicken Cage Bay also began to fire. These two forts were also equipped with a varying number of 24-pound heavy guns, with a range that could easily reach more than one li, which also posed a great threat to the Spanish fleet. The two sides fought for about an hour. Almost every ship in the fleet was shelled.

However, under the fire of the Spanish, these forts were as solid as a rock and had never been destroyed, but some buildings still suffered some losses.

A heavy shell was hit by a gun window on the Peace Island fort. This happened to be the weakest place. After the gun was hit, it collapsed, and the rubble stirred up by the shell flew around the inside of the fort, which immediately caused several gunners and more than a dozen villagers to be killed and injured. A 12-pound long cannon was also destroyed and buried on the spot. In the rubble.

However, the Spanish were relatively more injured. Several large ships were cut out of holes, and dozens of crew sailors were injured.

In the fierce battle, a shell fired from the Peace Island Battery hit Anthony's boat, almost smashing Anthony on the spot and killing an Anthony's guard.

When Anthony, who was helped up, saw this fight, they could not get much benefit, so they had to order a temporary ceasefire and retreat.

Looking at the Spanish fleet that turned to evacuate outside the Chicken Cage Bay, the sea wolves and the villagers in several forts immediately cheered.

Blackhead personally took a boat to the Peace Island Fort to celebrate the success of Feng 12 and others. He sent a large piece of meat and a bucket of wine as a reward for them. As for their merit, that's a matter of the future. For the time being, just reward them with wine and meat first.

Another group of construction craftsmen were also quickly sent to Heping Island and immediately began to repair the damaged turrets. They used ready-made spare stones and gravel to repair the collapsed gap on the spot, and boiled some glutinous rice and corn pulp mixed with lime as adhesives to bond the stones. And if this mixed slurry is poured into some cracks, it will not take long to solidify and solidify.

Of course, this practice is also a last resort, and it is a common method used by the ancients to build strong buildings. If it is replaced with cement, it will be much simpler and more convenient, and the degree ofjian guation will be better.

As for the casualties in the battery, they were also immediately transported back to Keelung Fort. The injured were immediately treated. The deceased arranged for someone to clean and wipe their bodies, and then converged them into the coffin.

For this battle, the carpenters of Keelungburg are busy enough. They also need to strengthen the defense facilities, repair the sailor ships damaged in the previous two days, and work overtime to build some coffins. According to Yu Xiaotian's habit, as long as the sea wolf died in battle, they must be buried, at least they must be prepared for them. The strong coffin makes them glorious after doing things.

These things are all for the living. Let the living know that once they die for the sea wolf group, they will not be discarded or casually dug a pit and buried. Because of superstition, the ancients were very concerned about the things behind them. Therefore, in this regard, Yu Xiaotian has always spared no effort to kill their hands. The things behind the people are beautiful.

In addition, in the morning, each fort consumed a lot of ammunition, and several main heavy guns were even hot. They had to stop and wait for the barrel to cool down. Whether it was the villagers who helped the battle or the gunners of the main battle, they were exhausted. When they saw the Spaniards withdrawing from the battle, the cheers fell, no The young man lay directly on the ground, panting like a dog, and didn't even want to move his fingers.

In this era*, it is an absolute heavy physical exercise, not to mention that they use heavy guns with long tubes, which are casually more than 1,000 catties, and some 24-pound cannons weigh up to 4,000 catties. It is absolutely impossible to play this without any strength.

This is also the reason why Yu Xiaotian is willing to let his men eat and drink well, that is, to nourish their bodies, provide them with enough nutrition, and strengthen their bodies. In addition to improving their resistance, they can also increase their endurance and let them have enough physical strength to devote themselves in battle during wartime. Medium.

Now it seems that he has been rewarded for doing this. These gunners have all persisted in the high-intensity artillery battle, which is far better than the ordinary villagers. After a short break, they all recovered one by one, rushed to eat and drink, quickly replenish their physical strength and prepare. Deal with the next battle.

At this time, under the command of Sun Baoqiang, a ship of ammunition was loaded from Keelung Fort to various forts and replenished into the ammunition depots in the flat battery, allowing these gunners to fight again at any time.

The destroyed gun was also cleaned out of the rubble and scrapped after inspection, so it was shipped back to the Keelung Fort cannon, smashed back to the furnace, and continued to cast into other cannons. A new gun was transported to the fort and hoisted into the turret with a winch. Ann It was placed on the gun position.

In just half a day, the damaged forts have been basically repaired, including the damaged artillery, including personnel, which have also been strengthened, replacing a group of paralyzed villagers, so that the forts have regained their combat capabilities again before dark.

After Anthony's first attack was frustrated, he took the ship back to their temporary anchorage, causing the ship's craftsman to quickly repair the damaged ship and count their losses.

The result of the inventory made these Spaniards very frustrated. After only half a day of artillery battle, each of them hit 30 or 40 shells, most of which were heavy artillery shells, causing certain damage to the main ships of their fleet. Although the damage was not too great, they would not lose their combat effectiveness, but But it was a great blow to their morale.

These Spanish sailors and soldiers who accompanied us here no longer have the relaxed mentality before the war, and no longer dare to underestimate the Chinese pirates here. They know that they have met a powerful opponent this time. These Chinese pirates are by no means the Chinese pirates they used to know before. This group of Chinese pirates who call themselves sea wolves are not only equipped with the quality of artillery, but also their combat skills are not weaker than them, even stronger than their gunners.

This can be seen from their observation of the shelling speed of the sea wolf forts. The gunners in these sea wolf forts loaded their guns very fast, even exceeding the loading speed of their ship's gunners.

And the accuracy of the other side's shelling should not be underestimated. These pirate gunners aimed very accurately, fiercely and accurately. If their ships hadn't started to sail and move after the start of the artillery battle, it was estimated that their losses in the past half a day would have been more serious.

In the first battle, they killed more than 30 sailors and soldiers. Although it can't be said that the blow was very heavy, it still frustrated these arrogant Spaniards.

"Commander, these damn Chinese pirates are obviously not as bad as we originally thought. They have a lot of long-range heavy artillery, which no one originally thought of, and they have built strong fortifications and forts outside Jilong Bay, which makes it difficult for us to break through their defenses and attack them. The castle!

So I think that if we want to capture Chicken Cage Bay, we can only enter the bay and capture their castle by sending infantry to capture their forts. Otherwise, even if we shoot all the shells on the ship, I'm afraid it will be difficult to destroy their forts!"

In the conference room of the Antony, the captains of each ship and infantry officers sat at the meeting table discussing how to deal with the sea wolf, a captain stood up and said to Anthony.

"Commander, today we have seen that these damn Chinese pirates have the firepower we didn't expect, causing us great losses!

At such a distance, we have no advantage in artillery battle with them. We can't give full play to our firepower advantage, especially some light guns on the ship, which can't reach such a long range and are too small.

If we want to conquer these damn forts, we must risk getting closer to them and give full play to the advantages of our fleet's artillery to suppress their firepower and completely destroy their forts!" Another captain then stood up and put forward his opinion.